It's A Digital Disease!

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/stoopidoMan on 2024-08-07 17:45:06.

I am on WinRAR 7.01 64bit

I compressed Folder [Test A] and [Test B] (Both folders are 22.2 GB) I compress them with these settings:

1. Archive format: RAR
2. Compression method: best
3. Dictionary size: 1 GB
4. Archiving options:
   1. Create solid Archive
   2. Test archived files
5. Archive features:
   1. Use BLAKE2 file checksum
   2. Save identical files as references

the compressed result.rar file was : 4.74 GB

I changed folder name [Test A] and [Test B] to [Test C] and [Test D]

And then added [Test C] and [Test D] which is the same folder but with different name to result.rar with the same settings and the result was: 9.49 GB

I did the same test, but without [Save identical files as references] and with larger dictionaries and it gives me the same result. it basically double the file size.

Is this a bug in WinRAR, because I think sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't depending on the folder size.

or this is how WinRAR works, so when new files are added the compression algorithm applies only on the new files.

Is there anyway for it to compress the whole thing when you add a new files, basically considering the whole content of files archive.

These folders are online account backups so it contains photos and data that are mostly identical and I don't want to extract the archive and then compress it again every time I rather add it, but if i do that the archive grow exponentially.